Life Size Memories
Frederique Lengaigne, Klaus Reisinger
AUSTRIA, 2012
90’
A former war photographer with a deep fascination for elephants sets out on a remarkable journey through Asia, gathering biographies and taking unique life-sized portraits of elephants, with the aim of revealing the individual personalities hidden behind the collective face of this impressive species.
The photographer believes that man is losing his respect for animals; that too often he sees them en masse, with no discernable difference noted between individuals in herds, prides or other natural groupings.
Through ever-changing locations and cultures the author encounters domesticated and wild elephants, some pampered, others treated badly. In Burma Thailand India and Sri Lanka, the owners and handlers tell the stories of their elephants captured from the wild, raised in captivity and trained out of necessity, greed or passion. Verbal histories, combined with the documented biographies of the animals, create a picture of their past and an understanding of who they are today.